At IGIA, 50 flights affected, 15 cancelled

Visibility improved later in the day. but the met dept has predicted similar fog conditions for friday morning.

Dense fog hampered flight operations in the early morning at the IGI Airport on Thursday. About 50 flights were affected after dense fog started enveloping the airport on Wednesday night. Fifteen flights had to be cancelled.

International and domestic flights in the wee hours of the day were mostly affected. The delays ranged from one to three hours. One international cargo flight had to be diverted to Karachi due to fog.

“Dense fog remained between 1.30am and 9.30am, during which visibility dipped below 200m,” said RK Jenamani, Director-in-Charge, IGIA Met unit.

“The airport witnessed very dense fog that set in suddenly on Wednesday night and affected international operations. Visibility, however, improved in the morning and that is why the fog didn’t have much impact on operations later in the day,” said an Air India official.

“Though there were CAT IIIB conditions on runway 29, there was no zero visibility, due to which flights could operate during that period,” Jenamani said.

The Met department has forecast similar fog conditions on Friday morning. “Due to the approaching western disturbances, the fog wouldn’t be too severe but we are expecting another spell of dense fog after January 7,” he said.